Authors
David Pettegrew
Publication date
2021/3
Journal
Church History
Volume
90
Issue
1
Pages
158-160
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Description
New Testament scholars have become increasingly interested in recent years in the relationship between the first Christian communities and other small face-to-face organizations. Collegia, occupational guilds, and cultic bodies, after all, formed intensive localized social networks much like the earliest churches, and they were as important as the family and the city in fostering connection. Kloppenborg’s new book marks the culmination of years of study of Greco-Roman associations and comprises a landmark publication about associative life among early Christians. ChristVs Association offers a comprehensive comparison of the social communities that formed primitive churches (known especially from passages in the New Testament) with the ancient associations recorded in thousands of inscriptions, papyri, and other texts dating between 400 BC and AD 300.
In Kloppenborg’s fulsome study,“associations”—a …
Scholar articles